Hunting the Elusive State Job

For many years the unemployment rate of people with disabilities has hovered around 70%.   It seems that every few years, a public official announces initiatives  to address this statistic by hiring ten people, or thousands of people with disabilities for public service.  Do these programs lead to more of us obtaining government employment?

Aaron Carruthers. A white man with neatly trimmed hair, a white shirt and suit jacket gestures and he addresses an unseen audience. We see his microphone.
Aaron Carruthe

Today Pushing Limits talks to three people about the reality of being hired by the State of California while living as a person with a disability.

Aaron Carruthers is the director of the State Council of Developmental Disabilities. One of the issues his organization advocates around is employment for those with disabilities.

Catherine Campisi. A women speaks into a microphone. She has curly dark hair with a distinguished shock of gray in the front. One of her hands is curled toward her body.
Catherine Campisi

Catherine Campisi works with the Association of California State Employees with Disabilities (ACSED) a membership organization working to address issues faced by

Catherine Campisi

Catherine Campisi works with the Association of California State Employees with Disabilities (ACSED) a membership organization working to address issues faced by individuals with disabilities in obtaining employment through the state.

Ammy Joseph

Ammy Joseph is a person with a disability who’s looking for state employment.

Announcements

Poster for the Deaf Dance Festival The 10th Annual Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival is coming to San Francisco for next three days.  It’s produced by Antoine Hunter’s Urban Jazz Dance Company, California’s only Black Deaf-led professional Dance Company.   Deaf artists are flying in from Colombia, Canada, India and all over the USA.  The Festival has four major performances and workshops in Jazz, Hip-Hop, Ballet and ASL Dance all taught by local Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Hearing artists who sign fluently.   There is a great depth and variety in their accessibility options.  Sadly the main performance space at Dance Mission Theater has a delay in the installation of its elevator, so if you need that kind of access, you can find it at the Sunday performance at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts.   To find out more about the covid precautions and everything else about this exciting, amazing, wonderful festival, go to RealUrbanJazzDance.com.

 

 

Poster for Adelante, by Axis Dance CompanyAnd, by the way, the East Bay’s AXIS Dance Company, one of the nation’s most acclaimed ensembles of disabled and non-disabled performers, has an evening of world premier pieces called Adelanti coming up the weekend of Sept 17 at the ODC Theater in San Francisco..   You can get $20. tickets but only if you book them TODAY using the code “Axis Early Bird”.

Produced and Interviews by Jacob Lesner-Buxton
Host & Audio Editor: Mark Romoser
Additional Audio Editing: Sheela Gunn-Cushman & Adrienne Lauby

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